


Homeland

by stateofintegrity



Category: MASH (TV)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-21
Updated: 2020-11-21
Packaged: 2021-03-10 02:47:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 651
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27656372
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stateofintegrity/pseuds/stateofintegrity
Summary: An essay contest on the topic of "home" leads to revelations.
Relationships: Maxwell Klinger/Charles Emerson Winchester III
Kudos: 7





	Homeland

“Hey, Charles, hang on a minute, huh?”

The Major slowed for his fellow surgeon.

“Here.”

“What’s this?”

“One of the entries. It’s not award-winning, maybe, but I thought you should check it out. And if Hawk knew about it, he’d never get off your back.”

As officers, they had been assigned to read and judge the entries for an essay contest for the enlisted men. The prize was a three-day pass to Tokyo and the topic was “Home.”

“Though I do not yet understand, I do thank you for sparing me that, Hunnicutt.”

BJ patted him on the shoulder. “Good luck,” he said cryptically – and then he was gone, long legs flashing as he caught up with his best friend.

Charles looked after them. He envied the two their easy bond. Charles was easy in the company only of his sister – and even that made him feel guilty as he felt that her bond to him was a sort of emotional Stockholm Syndrome. She had been born to the burden of him – of course she shouldered it well.

He took the folded sheets Hunnicutt had extended – and wasn’t that odd, Hunnicutt looking out for him? – to a stone wall at the edge of camp. If he refused to look beyond the boundaries of the paper, Winchester could pretend he was perched on the harbor wall in Boston, the sound of ships’ horns and surf in his ears, mingling with the high, far, mournful cry of gulls.

Shaking out the mysterious pages, the Major was confronted with a childish but passable hand on lined paper. It read:

_ Anybody who knows me would expect me to write this essay about a big, little town in Ohio. And, yeah, I miss it. If I close my eyes I can see the main drag. The bakery there always has a wedding cake in its window. The people are friendly, too – smiling or nodding at you, whether they know you good or not. I miss the movie theater and the pool hall, the grocery and the little shops I never really went into. I miss not being scared all the time. _

_ But home, back there, I don’t know how much it is home now. My family’s not there. My girl is someone else’s girl now. I don’t know if I can go back just for streets I know. So, I’m not gonna write about that. I’m gonna tell you about the only thing that feels like home  here . _

_ I work in a MASH. That means there’s always lots of blood and guts around. Amputated arms and legs and such. It scares me – a lot!! But sometimes I look up from being scared and this person gives me a look that makes me feel safe. Isn’t that what home’s supposed to do? _

_ It’s even better when they touch my shoulder or put an arm around me. It doesn’t happen that often, but every time it does, I feel like I stepped off the train in Toledo. I feel like I can breathe. Maybe you’ve been lucky enough to have someone like that around you. We could all use a person that feels like home. _

Charles closed his eyes, shook his head, and smiled.

_ Home, hmmm?  _ It was something he’d never been or given to anyone but Honoria. And here, 8,000 miles from anything like civilization, a slip of a Corporal in a dress was making a home of  _ him _ . He hadn’t known or guessed it, but now that he did, Charles thought he might need to bring the poor thing in off of the welcome mat. After all, he had plenty of room in his arms. He smiled to think that when he could, when he could be sure that they were alone and unseen, he would open them for Max. “Come on home, darling,” he would say to his Corporal. “Come home to me.”

End!


End file.
